Giant Bomb News

Updated World of Warcraft Subscriber Numbers

Lich King powers World of Warcraft to new subscriber high.

It's only a matter of time before we're issued one of these at birth.I don't know about you, but I like nice, round numbers. They're easy for my tiny mind to process. That's why it's sort of weird that Blizzard has updated its worldwide subscriber numbers for World of Warcraft. In a release sent out this morning, the company pegs the new subscriber count at 11.5 million accounts.

That's 11,500,000. The last count was 11 million, which was already pretty impressive. What, they couldn't wait until they hit 12 million before shooting out a release?

The release of the MMO's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is credited as fueling this rise in subscribers, and the company issued some sales numbers on that, as well. In addition to moving 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale, the expansion has gone on to move 4 million copies in its first month. Here is my expert commentary on these figures: Man, that's a lot.

In case you're questioning the numbers, Blizzard is also continuing to be pretty transparent about what it considers a "subscriber" with this handy definition:

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

That left me wondering what the heck the "Internet Game Room" is, but I haven't been able to figure out what that means. Searching for the term turns up the last several Blizzard press releases that use this exact paragraph to define subscribers. I currently have both Crash Commando and TrackMania United Forever running over here... are they talking about my bedroom? IS BLIZZARD SPYING ON MY BEDROOM!?!?!!?

It's only a matter of time before we're issued one of these at birth.I don't know about you, but I like nice, round numbers. They're easy for my tiny mind to process. That's why it's sort of weird that Blizzard has updated its worldwide subscriber numbers for World of Warcraft. In a release sent out this morning, the company pegs the new subscriber count at 11.5 million accounts.

That's 11,500,000. The last count was 11 million, which was already pretty impressive. What, they couldn't wait until they hit 12 million before shooting out a release?

The release of the MMO's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is credited as fueling this rise in subscribers, and the company issued some sales numbers on that, as well. In addition to moving 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale, the expansion has gone on to move 4 million copies in its first month. Here is my expert commentary on these figures: Man, that's a lot.

In case you're questioning the numbers, Blizzard is also continuing to be pretty transparent about what it considers a "subscriber" with this handy definition:

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

That left me wondering what the heck the "Internet Game Room" is, but I haven't been able to figure out what that means. Searching for the term turns up the last several Blizzard press releases that use this exact paragraph to define subscribers. I currently have both Crash Commando and TrackMania United Forever running over here... are they talking about my bedroom? IS BLIZZARD SPYING ON MY BEDROOM!?!?!!?

The extra half a mil is probably people coming back and wanting to get up to see the new content, guys who had sleeping 70's. Also the economy is in the toilet, so indoor entertainment like movies and games become the more affordable choice. And I think WoW has proven to be a pretty good time sink.

Game rooms are big in colleges and in foreign countries. There is one close to me that lets folks play WoW or some other FPS games. It's basically a Internet Cafe but usually it's pretty seedy and full of pesky teenagers. In the foreign joints they actually have premade toons for folks to play without their own account. Why anyone would want to fart around with someone elses toon, (or let someone play one of yours for that matter) is beyond me, but I guess it's just fairly low level toons with no epic gear so anything they do is no big loss. Maybe some sort of contract is signed if they go and shard gear or send stuff to their own toon they are liable.

I guess they could've waited, but a press release right before the holidays is publicity.

In other news, Warhammer lets you worship false idols that resemble e-peen douchebags that play way more than you.

"I believe an internet game room is similar to a cyber cafe, but for gaming, ala the whole issue with Valve and the publisher about distribution of something to cyber cafe's?"

Actually, Valve doesn't have any kind of issue. They just charge a gaming center $200 per PC to run a special form of Steam that doesn't carry all the games. It's pretty shitty, especially since per Microsoft's agreement with gaming centers, we have to own a copy of each game in the first place.

As for MMOs, that's not really a big deal, given that people have to buy their own subscriptions for the game anyways.

"I believe an internet game room is similar to a cyber cafe, but for gaming, ala the whole issue with Valve and the publisher about distribution of something to cyber cafe's?"

Actually, Valve doesn't have any kind of issue. They just charge a gaming center $200 per PC to run a special form of Steam that doesn't carry all the games. It's pretty shitty, especially since per Microsoft's agreement with gaming centers, we have to own a copy of each game in the first place.

As for MMOs, that's not really a big deal, given that people have to buy their own subscriptions for the game anyways.

"

When I went to Turkey, I found a gaming cafe in one of the poorest areas of the country(my dad's side of the family lives there), and I was suprised to see how many games these computers had(and ran really well), every computer had a 26 Samsung monitor and the cases of the pcs were alienware. Guess how much it cost for 4 hours use?

20 pence.

Thats like 14 cents.

Of course all the games were pirated, but over there, they can't even buy PS2's, let alone the current gen.

Blizzard is a monster and earned every penny. Those guys know how to make games, too bad I don't play MMO's... they haven't made shit since. I believe my recently opened CD matures when their next game hits. Good! I'll have money to buy it.

I doubt you could port wow to a console, way too few buttons. Blizzard earned every cent of this, the game is awsome, hope they put it into making future starcrafts and diablos just as good, not just conquering the world with solid platinum life size replicas of frostmourne.

How do so many people play that game steadily for years? They got to the highest level already... so they're just playing to get more items for their character? Then once they do that, Blizzard releases more gear sets and an expansion or two. When will they realize the game ended long ago.

If there is one company that still has left to disappoint me, it has to be blizzard. So, if i pay someone to play a game, well, it might as well be the guys over at Blizzard. And wow is by far the cheapest addiction I have ever had. If i play wow for 1 Saturday I have just saved myself at least 100$ on a cheap night out. And i can tell myself that I am a nerd not a alcoholic.